Ariba Live Dispatch 3: How Did Heinz Get Incremental Headcount?

Earlier this morning, Heinz' VP of N/A Procurement, Christopher Stockwell, gave an excellent presentation at Ariba Live Chicago on driving indirect procurement savings. Over on Supply Excellence, Justin Fogarty has already written about some of the questions in the Q/A that focused on building the case for getting incremental indirect sourcing headcount in an environment where companies are generally downsizing (ironically, I asked the question that Justin addressed, but he beat me to the punch in writing it up). To add to Justin's post, it's also worth mentioning that Heinz also puts its indirect sourcing team members -- including those that transferred from other areas in the company who are new to procurement -- through a range of training programs and certifications including APICs, ISM (CPM), and the Heinz Procurement academy (which leverages a sourcing training curriculum based on a seven step sourcing process from a consulting firm that went unnamed).